Under the Table
by Elessar Cuthalion
Summary: Mr. Gilbert. The owner of a large Pokemon Trading Company. Cool, calm, collected? Hardly when compaired to his secretary, Sydney. The pair seem to prove that it takes more than hard work and silly legal methods to gain wealth.


Under the Table

"Gilbert Trading Company. There's the building, and there's the plaza." A short and heavy-set man with sunglasses was explaining to a young man what the large building behind them was.

"Alright, can you tell me about the inside? Can you tell me what they do there?"

The young man was also wearing sunglasses, but unlike the shorter man, he was wearing nice clothes – a jet-black suit with a jet-black tie. The shorter man looked astonished and a little annoyed.

"Don't you know anythin'?" The vexed man pointed at what was clearly the largest building on the skyline. "That there, is the biggest Pokémon Trading Company the east has ever seen. It's enormous – and not just the building's square feet. It's famous everywhere." The younger man merely smiled back at the other, removed his sunglasses, and nodded.

"Good to know what this city thinks of my company. Thanks for your assistance." The young man walked past the now even more astonished man, patting his back and looking straight ahead at the building, replacing his sunglasses on his face.

Chapter One: A Fiery Deal

"Good Morning, Mr. Gilbert!"

"Hi."

"Good Morning!"

"Hello."

Daniel Gilbert nodded to everyone as he walked by. This happened every morning, and he wasn't ignoring the fact that most of these people just want promotions or raises, just like anyone faking a happy face in order to get what they want. It didn't bother Daniel that most of his workers didn't give a shit whether he had a good day or not, because he would have a good day. He was rich.

"Hmm, good morning, sir." A woman with a white dress shirt and black dress pants greeted Mr. Gilbert at the door of his office. Her brown hair fell about 8 inches under her shoulders and she had a fowl look on her face. She was carrying a clipboard with several times on it.

"No need to be fake with me, Sydney. I know you're one of the only people in this entire building who actually cares."

"Good, it was hard pretending to be nice. I had to do it all 87 floors up." Sydney rolled her eyes and set her clipboard on the desk Daniel was about to sit at.

"That's why you take my secret elevator. It's called 'wearing headphones so they think you can't hear.' Unfortunately, I lost mine in the Solstice this morning…" He sat down at his desk, grunting at the appointments and their times.

"Advice taken. Persian, greet our guest. Umm, guests?" Sydney looked around the corner at the people coming in. "Check the schedule, what's it say?" Daniel peeked down at the clipboard.

"Charleston. Must be married." Daniel started.

"Divorced." The Charlestons walked in hastily, not giving Persian any time to 'greet' them inside. "Let's hurry this up. I have a facial and then breakfast with Barbara." The woman of the couple blurted out a million things to the husband about why she needed to get done, only making it a slower process. Her former husband sat there, annoyed and sour. Daniel looked at them and then to Sydney.

"What can I do for you? This isn't divorce court…" Daniel looked sternly at the woman, cutting her ranting off.

"Hmm, Mr. Gilbert. Thank you for your valuable time – so honored to speak with you."

"Mmm." Daniel simply nodded and took out a notebook.

"We're here to divide ownership of the pokemon that work around our house – here's a list." The woman handed Daniel a list of all the Pokémon.

"Based on our income, we'd like you to advise us on the fairest possible split of ownership." The man cut in, and handed Daniel more information.

Daniel skimmed through the pages slowly. "This could easily take time past breakfast, ma'am. Is there any way that I could schedule a follow-up appointment?" The former couple looked at each other, and then each gave their respective evil eyes to Daniel. "Perhaps a different firm? This one handles the _trading and selling_ of Pokémon, not divvying up your property." (The now) Miss Charleston nearly stood up out of her seat.

"Don't you think we've tried a method where we're not paying for your –might I say- overpriced private meeting? Our lawyers haven't been able to come to a settlement that suits both of us. Based on your rates, you were the _very_ last option." She sat back in her chair and folded her arms.

"I'm sorry to hear that you're unhappy with my rates, but private meetings like this are hardly expected, not to mention rude. It sounds like you're in a bit of a fix, and if I do say so myself, which clearly I'm _not_ (he motioned towards Miss Charleston), I'm the only one who apparently has the trading skill to get you out.

I little while later…

"I hate pushy customers. Convinced that their time is more valuable than mine."

"Miss Charleston's unknowing of the Chansey plateau really made it difficult to persuade her to give up those Beedrill."

"Honestly, I wish they'd do an IQ test before letting the clients enter the building… Who's the next appointment?" Daniel sighed heavily.

"It's your 11 o'clock. Mr. Saul." Sydney looked up and raised her eyebrows. "We haven't seen him in awhile."

"No, we haven't."

--

After several more hours and grueling customers later, Daniel started to leave. Sydney left at the same, and they usually go to the local diner down the street.

"Mr. Saul's a wild card. He's never posed problems for our company before…" Daniel stirred his coffee absentmindedly.

"It'll be fine. Though this is the biggest case he's had with us, I doubt it'll cause any more problems than his other ones." Sydney also stirred some coffee. She hated it, but Daniel insisted on buying her some every single day.

"It almost seems as if he wants to keep it. He hinted at it the whole time." Daniel looked up.

"Keep it? The reason he came to us is so he could sell it."

"I'm not sure what he wants, anymore." Daniel drained his coffee. "I'm going home. Let's hope it all goes smoothly. We'll all benefit if it does." Daniel left Sydney at the diner, and walked to the parking garage under his building. He drove out in his Solstice, and drove home.

--

"Sir. Sir!" A pounding and a raised voice seeped through Daniel's door. Not exactly what he liked at 4 in the morning, but it was more decent than the alarm he was too lazy to program correctly. Still, it was annoying.

"What…?" Daniel walked to the door, opened it (after robbing himself, of course), and raised his eyebrows at an employee who would surely be out of a job if this wasn't urgent.

"Sir, a Master Ball has been stolen from Pokétchi industries –"

"What does that have to do with us?" Daniel cut in, rubbing his eyes.

"Well, the intruder alarm in flaring cave. It's possible tha-"

"My Moltres… Shit. How many are working on it?" Daniel closed the door a little, retreating back into his room and dressing frantically.

"Most of the city's police is on it, umm, we have our security staff is looking through the cave, umm…"

"I want my bird back. And I want who stole it to pay." Daniel dropped to the first floor of his apartment building, dashing out on a doorman that muttered his own version of 'good morning'. "Maybe for him." Daniel thought out loud. He slid into the car, met by Sydney. She raised his eyebrows at him.

"You just had to have your most valuable Pokémon stolen before I finished my beauty sleep." Daniel simply nodded.

"You have beauty sleep?"

"How do you think I outrank all the women at our building?" Sydney seemed to be fixing her hair with her hands as if she'd grown accustomed to doing it that way all her life.

"That's not quite why I hired you, but you are right." Sydney simply looked out the window, her hair nearly as nice looking as it had been 10 hours ago. "From what I heard on my way down, this whole thing seems to be going pretty smoothly."

"Yeah, the security team is really efficient." Sydney rolled her eyes in sarcasm.

"That's why I hired them." He looked out the window and sighed. "My Moltres better be alright after all of this." Sydney checked over her fingernails.

"Well, if it isn't… and if your security team doesn't manage their objective… You won't have to care for it anymore."

"That's true."

The car drove on, straight out of the town. It took more than a half-hour for the car to reach its destination, and the sun wasn't budging from its spot behind the mountains, though its presence was obvious.

The two got out of the car, walking towards the cave, seemingly becoming more distressed the closer they got. At least, Daniel seemed to. Sydney had her eternal indifferent gaze about her.

"Well, is it gone? Was Moltres stolen?"

"I'm afraid so. There aren't any signs of any kind of battle, which suggests greatly that the Master Ball was used to capture it."

"Ah, reminds me of when I captured it. Do we have any idea where the intruder's gone?" Daniel looked around, over people's shoulders, behind him. Tiredly.

"Not… really. We think he may have flown away on a Pokémon. There are some tracks we suspect to belong to an Altaria."

"Well, I wouldn't run on foot either." Daniel turned to see Sydney closing in on him. She leaned in.

"You could at least act concerned." She walked into the cave, to consult the investigation team.

Daniel wandered about, looking at the ground aimlessly and talking with a few people about the whole thing. He was pretty confident it would work out fine.

"Sir! We've come to the conclusion… That Moltres was stolen. Sorry, but that's all we can really get from the site at this point. You should probably get some rest."

"I'm sure it'll turn up. And… It's already 6. I might as well go in to the office." He pulled out his phone. "Sydney. We're leaving."

--

Daniel and Sydney emerged from the car in front of the building. They went to the top in a hurry, as not to attract any attention from underlings.

"I wonder… if he's here."

"I can't believe the police and our security took so long." Daniel and Sydney walked into their office.

"He could've been late." Sydney said it so indifferently, Daniel actually paused walking and turned around.

"Maybe he was…"

"I wasn't." Daniel and Sydney both jumped. Well, Daniel more than Sydney, but still.

"Good to hear." Daniel lit the room and sat in his chair, staring the man across from him straight in the eye. "I assume all went according to what we talked about yesterday?"

"Considering the short notice… Yeah." The person was none other than Mr. Saul, the client from earlier. He reached beside his chair, and set a large black briefcase onto Daniel's desk. "Two thirds of 10 mil. Well, 650k, close enough."

"Close enough." Daniel agreed. "I have to admit that I'm surprised they paid your full asking. Moltres isn't exactly the crème of the crop when it comes to legendary Pokémon.

"Oh, Giovanni was definitely more than willing to pay the price for that obnoxious bird." Mr. Saul kicked his feet up onto the desk, as Sydney walked over. She held out her hand to Daniel.

"Good Lord woman, can't we enjoy a drink first?" Daniel produced a large bottle of vodka from his desk.

"It's not even noon." Sydney held her hand closer to him. Daniel chuckled a bit, and then stopped abruptly. He set the vodka down, opened the heavy briefcase, and handed half of the cash-wads to Sydney. She grinned and took an extra one. "I agreed on a third. Close enough, no?" She walked off and dropped her handfuls into a bag under her desk.

Daniel turned to Mr. Saul. "Perhaps, this will be a… valuable partnership."


End file.
